How does Elixir fit in? Before you start reading this book, you're likely wondering two things: Elixir is certainly not a popular choice for genetic algorithm design; however, that doesn't mean it's not a good choice. First, the significant increases in available computing power over the last decade have meant the need for incredibly efficient code has diminished. That's not to say you shouldn't pay attention to efficiency and writing efficient code; however, the need to optimize code for low-power hardware has significantly decreased. Second, as you'll see in Chapter 11, Optimizing Your Algorithms, parallelism in Elixir is a straightforward task. The BEAM is especially optimized for running numerous processes at once, so writing and running parallel code is easy.